Episode 676: Questions You Asked Us to Answer
Date May 13, 2015 Summary Ben and Sam answer listener emails about ace vs. ace matchups, videos they wish they could watch, high-strikeout starts, and more. Topics * High-strikeout starts and seasons * Baseball videos we wish existed * Teams with the most positive WAR players * Ace vs. ace matchups * Using advanced metrics to better understand the past Intro The Super Friendz, "Everything Writes Itself" Outro Episode outtake sound clip Banter * Episode 675 follow-up: Sam discusses the morality of Branch Rickey in and out of baseball. * Episode 675 follow-up: Sam says that the modern era of baseball cards began in 1989 because it was the first year to include stats from 1988. * Episode 675 follow-up: A listener who is a federal attorney writes in to say that in most cases bugging a clubhouse would be illegal. s wire taps. bugging clubhouse would be illegal * Episode 675 follow-up: One listener suggested that teams could lose home games as a punshiment for front office cheating. Email Questions * Tim: "If I can distract you from imagining what baseball would be like if it was played on horses and unicycles, would you please name my son?" * Russ (Massapequa, NY): "When my brother Adam and I found out tha tMichael Pineda had 16 strikeouts through 7 innings we had to get to a TV because this was huge. We paused for a second and realized that in the past 16 strikeouts would be awesome, but it wasn't as rare as it is now. Is it just us or are these 15+ strikeout games not as common as they used to be? Thinking further, we don't see seasons of 300 strikeouts like we did 15 years ago, but strikeouts in the game are way up. What gives? Is it just that we had once in a generation players like Pedro, Johnson, and Clemens back in the 90s and early 2000s?" * Francis (New York, NY): "In the past few days I have unsuccessfully searched for two of my favorite baseball commercials ever. The first featured a young Dominican boy named Samuel who insisted on being called Pedro for obvious reasons. The second a Pizza Hut ad with Ken Griffey, Jr. showed Jr. explaining that a hitter must think up the middle, then taking a full swing at a flying pizza box. Alas, as far as I can tell the internet has failed baseball fans because neither video exists. What missing footage do you wish that you could find? Would it be historical, like Ruth's called shot? Pop culture related, film of the Copacabana incident? Or something else?" * Kenny: "So, basically with the exception of Opening Day and the first week after the All-Star Break it's uncommon to see an ace vs. ace matchup. While in NCAA baseball every weekend series features a one vs. one matchup on Friday nights, two vs. two on Saturday, and three vs. three on Sunday. I would like to see MLB sort of co-opt this idea by encouraging or incentivizing ace vs. ace matchups on one day every week. Putting these on Sundays would almost create an NFL feel to each Sunday which would help attract the casual viewers. Would you like to see this happen? What are some of the benefits or drawbacks to such a plan? Would every team cooperate?" * Henry (Los Angeles, CA): "I've really enjoyed the mainstreaming of advanced statistics in the last few years and I'm loving Statcast, but the profusion of data we have these days seems to separate the contemporary game from the historical and I've always enjoyed baseball history as much as the current game. Do you think there are any modern statistics or advanced metrics or Statcast stuff that can help us to better understand the past or any that can help us compare the present to the past? WAR kind of helps but I'm skeptical about how WAR is calculated with no fielding stats, etc. I'm reading a biography of Satchel Paige, it's all anecdotal of course, but there are descriptions of his pitching that sound just like Bartolo Colon. Four or five different fastballs, all strikes, ridiculous K/BB, etc. Do you think we'll ever have data that helps us link to the past or will it all just serve to divide the eras?" Play Index * Sam wanted to find out which team since 1988 has had the most players with a positive WAR. * The 1991 Houston Astros had 15 players play above replacement level, the fewest of any team since 1988. * The 2003 Cleveland Indians had 34 players play above replacement level, the most of any team since 1988. They finished the season at 68-94. Most players were barely above 0 WAR. Notes * Additional punishments proposed by Sam: no sunglasses during day games, no shoelaces, no hats, everyone uses same size bat, gum is replaced by raw radishes, no bench in dugout, cut water to shower, and teams have to use the opponents' base coaches. * Sam mentions the record K/9 rate that Yu Darvish had last season, which was discussed in a Play Index segment in Episode 488. * Sam is surprised that Randy Johnson skipped his last start in 2001 and didn't try for the single season strikeout record. * Sam is very excited about Francis' question, "I have an answer for you Ben I don't even want to wait for you to finish the question...I'll let you go first because my answer is awesome." * Ben would want to see video of Merkle's Boner. Sam wants to see video from a double that Will Clark hit in the Astrodome sometime between 1988 and 1991. After hitting the double, with the camera on him, Sam remembers Clark putting up two middle fingers. Links * Effectively Wild Episode 676: Questions You Asked Us to Answer Category:Episodes Category:Email Episodes